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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce—1609
By John Lothrop Motley
MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 74
History of the United Netherlands, 1600-1602
Effects of the Nieuport campaign—The general and the statesman— The Roman empire and the Turk—Disgraceful proceedings of the mutinous soldiers in Hungary—The Dunkirk pirates—Siege of Ostend by the Archduke—Attack on Rheinberg by Prince Maurice—Siege and capitulation of Meura—Attempt on Bois-le-Duc—Concentration of the war at Ostend—Account of the belligerents—Details of the siege— Feigned offer of Sir Francis Vere to capitulate—Arrival of reinforcements from the States—Attack and overthrow of the besiegers.
The Nieuport campaign had exhausted for the time both belligerents.The victor had saved the republic from impending annihilation, but wasincapable of further efforts during the summer. The conquered cardinal-archduke, remaining essentially in the same position as before, consoledhimself with the agreeable fiction that the States, notwithstanding theirtriumph, had in reality suffered the most in the great battle. Meantimeboth parties did their best to repair damages and to recruit theirarmies.
The States—or in other words Barneveld, who was the States—had learneda lesson. Time was to show whether it would be a profitable one, orwhether Maurice, who was the preceptor of Europe in the art of war, wouldcontinue to be a docile pupil of the great Advocate even in militaryaffairs. It is probable that the alienation between the statesman andthe general, which was to widen as time advanced, may be dated from theday of Nieuport.
Fables have even been told which indicated the popular belief in anintensity of resentment on the part of the prince, which certainly didnot exist till long afterwards.
"Ah, scoundrel!" the stadholder was said to have exclaimed, giving theAdvocate a box on the ear as he came to wish him joy of his greatvictory, "you sold us, but God prevented your making the transfer."
History would disdain even an allusion to such figments—quite asdisgraceful, certainly to Maurice as to Barneveld—did they not point themoral and foreshadow some of the vast but distant results of events whichhad already taken place, and had they not been so generally repeated thatit is a duty for the lover of truth to put his foot upon the calumny,even at the risk for a passing moment of reviving it.
The condition of the war in Flanders had established a temporaryequilibrium among the western powers—France and England discussing,intriguing, and combining in secret with each other, against each other,and in spite of each other, in regard to the great conflict—while Spainand the cardinal-archduke on the one side, and the republic on the other,prepared themselves for another encounter in the blood-stained arena.
Meantime, on the opposite verge of what was called European civilization,the perpetual war between the Roman Empire and the Grand Turk had for themoment been brought into a nearly similar equation. Notwithstanding thevast amount of gunpowder exploded during so many wearisom